Don't have a transcript. This is from Adam Sewer:
Brennan refuses to call waterboarding torture but says he won't use it. "I've read a lot of legal opinions."
This is an unacceptable position. It's also out of line with
his boss's:
"Waterboarding is torture."
US News and World Report:
The White House's pick for CIA chief says the harsh interrogation technique known as waterboarding is reprehensible and should not be used on terror suspects — but he is refusing to call it a form of torture.
John Brennan says waterboarding should have never been legal and will never be used under his watch if he is confirmed as the Central Intelligence Agency director.
But he stopped short several times of calling it torture despite pointed questioning Thursday by Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan.
Here's what he said:
"I have a person opinion that it is reprehensible and it is something that should not be done. I'm not a lawyer so I can't address that question."
Not good enough, not nearly good enough.
Follow up question: Are you willing to give on a legal opinion on the cutting off a suspect's limb even though you're not a lawyer?
How bout crushing a detainee's testicles? Still unwilling to say that's illegal because you didn't go to law school?
UPDATE: Brennan just came close to calling waterboarding torture by standing by a statement he made in 2007:
“I think [waterboarding] is certainly subjecting an individual to severe pain and suffering, which is the classic definition of torture. And I believe, quite frankly, it’s inconsistent with American Values and it’s something that should be prohibited.”
UPDATE: His answer is even worse than I realized. He refuses to say that the Geneva Conventions ban waterboarding and suggests that it might be legal because a OLC memo under Bush claimed it was. You can watch it
here.